KDE is delighted to announce its latest set of releases, providingmajor updates to KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and the KDEPlatform. Version 4.9 provides many new features, along with improvedstability and performance.This release is dedicated to the memory of KDE contributor ClaireLotion. Claire's vibrant personality and enthusiasm were aninspiration to many in our community, and her pioneering work on theformat, scope and frequency of our developer meetings changed the waywe go about implementing our mission today. Through these and otheractivities she left a notable mark on the software we are able torelease to you today, and we are grateful for and humbled by her efforts.

The KDE Quality Team was set up earlier this year with a goal toimprove the general levels of quality and stability in KDE software.Special attention was given to identifying and fixing regressions fromprevious releases. This was a top priority because it ensuresimprovement with each release.The Team also set up a more rigorous testing process for releasesstarting with beta versions. New testing volunteers received training;and several testing intensive days were held. Rather than traditionalexploratory testing, testers were assigned to focus on specific areasthat had changed since previous releases. For several criticalcomponents, full testing checklists were developed and used. The teamfound many important issues early and worked with developers to makesure they were fixed. The Team itself reported over 160 bugs with thebeta and RC releases, many of which have now been fixed. Other betaand RC users added considerably to the number of bugs reported. Theseefforts are important because they allow developers to concentrate onfixing issues.As a result of the efforts of the KDE Quality Team, the 4.9 Releasesare the best ever.One particular bugfix deserves special attention. An Okular bugreported in 2007 had gotten nearly 1100 votes; it was important tomany users. They complained about making annotations and not beingable to save or print them. With the assistance of many commenters andpeople on the Okular IRC channel, Fabio Dâ€™Urso implemented a solutionthat allows Okular PDF document annotations to be saved and printed.The fix required some work on KDE libraries and attention to overalldesign to ensure that non-PDF documents worked right. This was Fabiosfirst KDE dev experience, which came about when he encountered theproblem and decided to do something about it.